International Journal of Qualitative Methods

This Journal is a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics.

This Journal recommends that authors follow the Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing,
and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals formulated by the International Committee of
Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE).

Please read the guidelines below then visit the journal’s submission site
https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/ijqm to upload your manuscript. Please note that manuscripts not
conforming to these guidelines may be returned.

Only manuscripts of sufficient quality that meet the aims and scope of IJQM will be reviewed.

As part of the submission process you will be required to warrant that you are submitting your original
work, that you have the rights in the work, that you are submitting the work for first publication in the
Journal and that it is not being considered for publication elsewhere and has not already been published
elsewhere, and that you have obtained and can supply all necessary permissions for the reproduction of
any copyright works not owned by you.

The International Journal of Qualitative Methods is the peer-reviewed interdisciplinary open access journal of the Institute of Qualitative Methodology (IIQM) at the University of Alberta, Canada. 

The journal was established in 2002 as an eclectic and international forum for papers reporting original methodological insights, study design innovations, and funded-project proposals using qualitative or mixed methods research that are useful to the global research community. 

 

Please Read the Manuscript Submission Guidelines below before submitting your manuscript here:
SUBMIT MANUSCRIPT

1. Open Access
2. Article processing charge (APC)
3. What do we publish?
   3.1 Aims & scope
   3.2 Article types
   3.2.1 Regular Articles: Methodological Insights, Advantages and Innovations
   3.2.2 Qualitative Study Protocols
   3.3 Writing your paper
   3.3.1 Making your article discoverable 
4. Editorial policies
   4.1 Peer Review Policy
   4.2 Authorship
   4.3 Acknowledgements
   4.3.1 Writing assistance
   4.4 Funding
   4.5 Declaration of conflicting interests
   4.6 Research ethics and patient consent
   4.7 Clinical Trials
   4.8 Reporting guidelines
5. Publishing policies
   5.1 Publication ethics
   5.2 Contributor's publishing agreement
6. Preparing your manuscript
   6.1 Word processing formats
   6.2 Artwork, figures and other graphics
   6.3 Supplementary material
   6.4 Reference style
   6.5 English language editing services
7. Submitting your manuscript
   7.1 How to submit your manuscript
   7.2 Title, keywords and abstracts
   7.3 Information required for completing your submission
   7.4 ORCID
   7.5 Permissions
8. On acceptance and publication
   8.1 SAGE Production
   8.2 Continuous publication
   8.3 Promoting your article
9. Further information

1. Open Access

International Journal of Qualitative Methods (IJQM) is an open access, peer-reviewed journal. Each
article accepted by peer review is made freely available online immediately upon publication, is
published under a Creative Commons license and will be hosted online in perpetuity. Publication costs
of the journal are covered by the collection of article processing charges which are paid by the funder,
institution or author of each manuscript upon acceptance. There is no charge for submitting a paper to
the journal.

For general information on open access at SAGE please visit the Open Access page or view our OpenAccess FAQs.

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2. Article processing charge (APC)

If, after peer review, your manuscript is accepted for publication, a one-time article processing charge
(APC) is payable. This APC covers the cost of publication and ensures that your article will be freely
available online in perpetuity under a Creative Commons license.

The article processing charge (APC) is currently $1,500 USD for regular articles and $1,750 USD for qualitative study protocols.

Students are eligible for a special rate of 75% off the current APC as long as they are the first and corresponding author. Validation of status is required after submission. 

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3. What do we publish?

For information on preparing and formatting your manuscript, please see this section. 

3.1 Aims & scope

Before submitting your manuscript to IJQM, please ensure you have read the Aims & Scope.

3.2 Article types

3.2.1 Regular Articles: Methodological Insights, Advantages and Innovations

These articles must clearly report a methodological insight, advance and/or innovation in
qualitative or mixed methods research likely to be of interest, benefit or relevance to the global
community of researchers interested in these methods. Papers should be intelligible across
disciplines and expertise levels.

Submissions must focus substantially on methodological not substantive results. What the paper
adds to existing methodological knowledge must be clearly stated in the manuscript.

Please limit your title to 30 words or less. 

Articles should be no longer than is necessary to contextualize and convey methodological
insights, advances or innovations. Articles should fall between 3,500 and 7,500 words excluding
references and abstract.

Provide an abstract, which effectively summarizes the content of your article, in particular its
methodological insight, innovation or advance. Your abstract should be 200-300 words. 

3.2.2 Qualitative Study Protocols

Many journals are now publishing study protocols. To further the development of qualitative
methods, IJQM now accepts nationally funded study protocols for qualitative or mixed methods
studies for inclusion in the journal.

These types of papers can help researchers:

• Share methodological ideas, insights, and practices
• Develop insights from cutting-edge and highly creative studies
• Contribute to the future advancement of qualitativemethods
• Raise the profile of both the study and theresearcher(s)

All protocols accepted by IJQM will feature as full indexed papers in the journal.

Focus of protocols
Study protocols should not normally exceed 5000 words (excluding references). Protocols
should be submitted in English according to the author guidelines of the journal and should
include the following sections:

Background / Study justification / Summary of pilot work
Give a persuasive overview to justify your study based on past research and theory, followed
by details of any pilot work done to date.

Explanation and justification of method
Give a clear, comprehensive, and detailed overview of which method you used, what you did,
and why.

Sampling / Recruitment
Give a clear, comprehensive, and detailed overview of the people involved in the study, what
you did to recruit them, and why.

Data Handling / Analysis
Give a clear, comprehensive, and detailed overview of how you handled and analysed your
data, including how you will handle disagreements and/or team analysis.

Ethics
Provide a summary of the main ethical issues raised by the study and how these are to be
addressed.

Rigor
Discuss the approach to qualitative rigor to be adopted and the steps to be used to maintain
rigor.

Full copies of interview schedules/ Focus group schedules / Fieldwork plans
Include full schedules if possible.

Criteria for review
Protocols must detail empirical qualitative studies or mixed method studies with a substantial
qualitative component (e.g., not quantitative studies / reviews) that have received peerreviewed
state / provincial / federal / national funding; such studies would not be subject to
further peer review prior to publication, but will still undergo review for final approval.
Protocols which raise substantial ethical concerns may be subject to full peer review as per
normal IJQM procedures.

Student proposals / non-funded / locally-funded studies will not be considered.

3.3 Writing your paper

The SAGE Author Gateway has some general advice and on how to get published, plus links to
further resources.

3.3.1 Making your article discoverable 

When writing up your paper, think about how you can make it discoverable. The title,
keywords and abstract are key to ensuring readers find your article through search
engines such as Google. For information and guidance on how best to title your article,
write your abstract and select your keywords, have a look at this page on the Gateway:
How to Help Readers Find Your Article Online

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4. Editorial policies

4.1 Peer review policy

Following a preliminary triage to eliminate submissions unsuitable for IJQM all papers are sent
out for review. The covering letter is important. To help the Editor in his preliminary evaluation,
please indicate why you think the paper suitable for publication. 

The journal’s policy is to have manuscripts reviewed by a minimum of two expert reviewers.
IJQM utilizes a double-blind peer review process in which the reviewer and authors’ names and
information are withheld from the other. Reviewers may at their own discretion opt to reveal
their names to the author in their review but our standard policy practice is for their identities
to remain concealed. All manuscripts are reviewed as rapidly as possible, while maintaining
rigor. Reviewers make comments to the author and recommendations to the Editor-in-Chief
who then makes the final decision.

IJQM is committed to delivering high quality, fast peer-review for your paper, and as such has
partnered with Publons. Publons is a third party service that seeks to track, verify and give credit
for peer review. Reviewers for IJQM can opt in to Publons in order to claim their reviews or have
them automatically verified and added to their reviewer profile. Reviewers claiming credit for
their review will be associated with the relevant journal, but the article name, reviewer’s
decision and the content of their review is not published on the site. For more information visit
the Publons website.

The Editor or members of the Editorial Board may occasionally submit their own manuscripts for
possible publication in the journal. In these cases, the peer review process will be managed by
alternative members of the Board and the submitting Editor/Board member will have no
involvement in the decision-making process.

4.2 Authorship

Papers should only be submitted for consideration once consent is given by all contributing
authors. Those submitting papers should carefully check that all those whose work contributed
to the paper are acknowledged as contributing authors.
The list of authors should include all those who can legitimately claim authorship. This is all
those who:

(i) Made a substantial contribution to the concept or design of the work; or acquisition,
analysis or interpretation of data,
(ii) Drafted the article or revised it critically for important intellectual content,
(iii) Approved the version to be published,
(iv) Each author should have participated sufficiently in the work to take public
responsibility for appropriate portions of the content.

Authors should meet the conditions of all of the points above. Each author should have
participated sufficiently in the work to take public responsibility for appropriate portions of the
content.

When a large, multicentre group has conducted the work, the group should identify the
individuals who accept direct responsibility for the manuscript. These individuals should fully
meet the criteria for authorship.

Acquisition of funding, collection of data, or general supervision of the research group alone
does not constitute authorship, although all contributors who do not meet the criteria for
authorship should be listed in the Acknowledgments section. Please refer to the International
Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) authorship guidelines for more information on
authorship.

All parties who have made a substantive contribution to the article should be listed as authors.
Principal authorship, authorship order, and other publication credits should be based on the
relative scientific or professional contributions of the individuals involved, regardless of their
status. A student is usually listed as principal author on any multiple-authored publication that
substantially derives from the student’s dissertation or thesis.

4.3 Acknowledgements

All contributors who do not meet the criteria for authorship should be listed in an
Acknowledgements section. Examples of those who might be acknowledged include a person
who provided purely technical help, or a department chair who provided only general support. 

4.3.1 Third party submissions
Where an individual who is not listed as an author submits a manuscript on behalf of the author(s), a statement must be included in the Acknowledgements section of the manuscript and in the accompanying cover letter. The statements must:

• Disclose this type of editorial assistance – including the individual’s name, company and level of input
• Identify any entities that paid for this assistance
• Confirm that the listed authors have authorized the submission of their manuscript via third party and approved any statements or declarations, e.g. conflicting interests, funding, etc.

Where appropriate, SAGE reserves the right to deny consideration to manuscripts submitted by a third party rather than by the authors themselves.

4.3.2 Writing assistance

Individuals who provided writing assistance, e.g. from a specialist communications company, do
not qualify as authors and so should be included in the Acknowledgements section. Authors
must disclose any writing assistance – including the individual’s name, company and level of
input – and identify the entity that paid for this assistance.
It is not necessary to disclose use of language polishing services.

Please supply any personal acknowledgements separately to the main text to facilitate
anonymous peer review.

4.4 Funding

IJQM requires all authors to acknowledge their funding in a consistent fashion under a separate
heading. Please visit the Funding Acknowledgements page on the SAGE Journal Author Gateway
to confirm the format of the acknowledgment text in the event of funding, or state that: This
research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or notfor-profit
sectors.

4.5 Declaration of conflicting interests

It is the policy of IJQM to require a declaration of conflicting interests from all authors enabling a
statement to be carried within the paginated pages of all published articles.

Please ensure that a ‘Declaration of Conflicting Interests’ statement is included at the end of
your manuscript, after any acknowledgements and prior to the references. If no conflict exists,
please state that ‘The Author(s) declare(s) that there is no conflict of interest’.

For guidance on conflict of interest statements, please see the ICMJE recommendations.

4.6 Research ethics and patient consent

Medical research involving human subjects must be conducted according to the World Medical
Association Declaration of Helsinki.

Submitted manuscripts should conform to the ICMJE Recommendations for the Conduct,
Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals, and all papers
reporting animal and/or human studies must state in the methods section that the relevant
Ethics Committee or Institutional Review Board provided (or waived) approval. Please ensure
that you have provided the full name and institution of the review committee, in addition to the
approval number.

For research articles, authors are also required to state in the methods section whether
participants provided informed consent and whether the consent was written or verbal.

Information on informed consent to report individual cases or case series should be included in
the manuscript text. A statement is required regarding whether written informed consent for
patient information and images to be published was provided by the patient(s) or a legally
authorized representative.

Please also refer to the ICMJE Recommendations for the Protection of Research Participants.

All research involving animals submitted for publication must be approved by an ethics
committee with oversight of the facility in which the studies were conducted. The journal has
adopted the Consensus Author Guidelines on Animal Ethics and Welfare for Veterinary Journals.
published by the International Association of Veterinary Editors.

4.7 Clinical trials

IJQM conforms to the ICMJE requirement that clinical trials are registered in a WHO-approved
public trials registry at or before the time of first patient enrolment as a condition of
consideration for publication. The trial registry name and URL, and registration number must be
included at the end of the abstract.

4.8 Reporting guidelines

The relevant EQUATOR Network reporting guidelines should be followed depending on the type
of study. For example, all randomized controlled trials submitted for publication should include
a completed CONSORT flow chart as a cited figure and the completed CONSORT checklist should
be uploaded with your submission as a supplementary file. Systematic reviews and metaanalyses
should include the completed PRISMA flow chart as a cited figure and the completed
PRISMA checklist should be uploaded with your submission as a supplementary file. The
EQUATOR wizard can help you identify the appropriate guideline.

Other resources can be found at NLM’s Research Reporting Guidelines and Initiatives.

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5. Publishing policies

5.1 Publication ethics

SAGE is committed to upholding the integrity of the academic record. We encourage authors to
refer to the Committee on Publication Ethics’ International Standards for Authors and view the
Publication Ethics page on the SAGE Author Gateway.

5.1.1 Plagiarism

IJQM and SAGE take issues of copyright infringement, plagiarism or other breaches of best
practice in publication very seriously. We seek to protect the rights of our authors and we
always investigate claims of plagiarism or misuse of published articles. Equally, we seek to
protect the reputation of the journal against malpractice. Submitted articles may be checked
with duplication-checking software. Where an article, for example, is found to have plagiarized
other work or included third-party copyright material without permission or with insufficient
acknowledgement, or where the authorship of the article is contested, we reserve the right to
take action including, but not limited to: publishing an erratum or corrigendum (correction);
retracting the article; taking up the matter with the head of department or dean of the author's
institution and/or relevant academic bodies or societies; or taking appropriate legal action.

5.1.2 Prior publication

If material has been previously published, it is not generally acceptable for publication in a SAGE
journal. However, there are certain circumstances where previously published material can be
considered for publication. Please refer to the guidance on the SAGE Author Gateway or if in
doubt, contact the Editor at the address given below.

5.2 Contributor's publishing agreement

Before publication SAGE requires the author as the rights holder to sign a Journal Contributor’s
Publishing Agreement. IJQM publishes manuscripts under Creative Commons licenses. The
standard license for the journal is Creative Commons by Attribution Non-Commercial (CC BYNC),
which allows others to re-use the work without permission as long as the work is properly
referenced and the use is non-commercial. For more information, you are advised to visit
SAGE's OA licenses page.

Alternative license arrangements are available, for example, to meet particular funder
mandates, made at the author’s request. 

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6. Preparing your manuscript

6.1 Word processing formats

The preferred formats for your manuscript are Word, RTF, XLS. LaTeX files are also accepted.
Word and (La)Tex templates are available on the Manuscript Submission Guidelines page of our
Author Gateway.

The text should be double-spaced throughout with a minimum of 3cm for left and right margins
and 5cm at head and foot. Text should be standard 12 point Helvetica.

6.2 Artwork, figures and other graphics

For guidance on the preparation of illustrations, pictures and graphs in electronic format, please
visit SAGE’s Manuscript Submission Guidelines.

Figures supplied in color will appear in color online.

6.3 Supplementary material

This journal is able to host additional materials online (e.g. datasets, podcasts, videos, images
etc) alongside the full-text of the article. These will be subjected to peer-review alongside the
article. For more information please refer to our guidelines on submitting supplementary files,
which can be found within our Manuscript Submission Guidelines page. 

6.4 Reference style

IJQM adheres to the APA reference style. Please review the guidelines on APA to ensure your
manuscript conforms to this reference style.

6.5 English language editing services

Authors seeking assistance with English language editing, translation, or figure and manuscript
formatting to fit the journal’s specifications should consider using SAGE Language Services. Visit
SAGE Language Services on our Journal Author Gateway for further information. 

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7. Submitting your manuscript

7.1 How to submit your manuscript

IJQM is hosted on SAGE Track, a web based online submission and peer review system powered
by ScholarOne™ Manuscripts. Visit https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/ijqm to login and submit
your article online.

IMPORTANT: Please check whether you already have an account in the system before trying to
create a new one. If you have reviewed or authored for the journal in the past year it is likely
that you will have had an account created. For further guidance on submitting your manuscript
online please visit ScholarOne Online Help.

7.2 Title, keywords and abstracts

Please add a title page to your submission. This page will not be a part of the document sent out for peer review, but it is needed for Editorial purposes. The title page should include: 
a)      Title
b)      List of authors, and their affiliations
c)      Corresponding author and their details
d)      Acknowledgement
e)      Funding Information
f)      Conflict of Interest.

Please supply a title, short title, an abstract and keywords to accompany your article. The title,
keywords and abstract are key to ensuring readers find your article online through online search
engines such as Google. Please refer to the information and guidance on how best to title your 
article, write your abstract and select your keywords by visiting the SAGE Journal Author
Gateway for guidelines on How to Help Readers Find Your Article Online. 

7.3 Information required for completing your submission

Provide full contact details for the corresponding author including email, mailing address and
telephone numbers. Academic affiliations are required for all co-authors. These details should
be presented separately to the main text of the article to facilitate anonymous peer review.

You will be asked to provide contact details and academic affiliations for all co-authors via the
submission system and identify who is to be the corresponding author. These details must
match what appears on your manuscript. At this stage please ensure you have included all the
required statements and declarations and uploaded any additional supplementary files
(including reporting guidelines where relevant).

7.4 ORCID

As part of our commitment to ensuring an ethical, transparent and fair peer review process SAGE is a supporting member of ORCID, the Open Researcher and Contributor ID. ORCID provides a unique and persistent digital identifier that distinguishes researchers from every other researcher, even those who share the same name, and, through integration in key research workflows such as manuscript and grant submission, supports automated linkages between researchers and their professional activities, ensuring that their work is recognized.

The collection of ORCID iDs from corresponding authors is now part of the submission process of this journal. If you already have an ORCID iD you will be asked to associate that to your submission during the online submission process. We also strongly encourage all co-authors to link their ORCID ID to their accounts in our online peer review platforms. It takes seconds to do: click the link when prompted, sign into your ORCID account and our systems are automatically updated. Your ORCID iD will become part of your accepted publication’s metadata, making your work attributable to you and only you. Your ORCID iD is published with your article so that fellow researchers reading your work can link to your ORCID profile and from there link to your other publications.

If you do not already have an ORCID iD please follow this link to create one or visit our ORCID homepage to learn more.

7.5 Permissions

Authors are responsible for obtaining permission from copyright holders for reproducing any
illustrations, tables, figures or lengthy quotations previously published elsewhere. For further
information including guidance on fair dealing for criticism and review, please visit our
Frequently Asked Questions on the SAGE Journal Author Gateway.

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8. On acceptance and publication

If your paper is accepted for publication after peer review, you will first be asked to complete the
contributor’s publishing agreement. Once your manuscript files have been check for SAGE Production,
the corresponding author will be asked to pay the article processing charge (APC) via a payment link.
Once the APC has been processed, your article will be prepared for publication and can appear online
within an average of 30 days. Please note that no production work will occur on your paper until the
APC has been received.

8.1 SAGE Production

Your SAGE Production Editor will keep you informed as to your article’s progress throughout the
production process. Proofs will be sent by PDF to the corresponding author and should be
returned promptly. Authors are reminded to check their proofs carefully to confirm that all
author information, including names, affiliations, sequence and contact details are correct, and
that Funding and Conflict of Interest statements, if any, are accurate. Please note that if there
are any changes to the author list at this stage all authors will be required to complete and sign
a form authorizing the change.

8.2 Online publication

One of the many benefits of publishing your research in an open access journal is the speed to
publication. With no page count constraints, your article will be published online in a fully
citable form with a DOI number as soon as it has completed the production process. At this time
it will be completely free to view and download for all. Articles are batch every year and are
then available in the Archive.

8.3 Promoting your article

Publication is not the end of the process! You can help disseminate your paper and ensure it is
as widely read and cited as possible. The SAGE Author Gateway has numerous resources to help
you promote your work. Visit the Promote Your Article page on the Gateway for tips and advice.

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9. Further information

Any correspondence, queries or additional requests for information on the Manuscript Submission
process should be sent to the IJQM editorial office as follows:

ijqm@ualberta.ca

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